Too Perfect
by Pir8grl
Summary: **SPOILER FREE FOR US VIEWERS** Just some ramblings based on the trailers and prequel for The Name of the Doctor that were officially aired by the BBC, with some additional insights to episodes that I'm picking up as BBC America re-airs season 7.2 today.
1. Chapter 1

She was perfect. Too perfect. Always just what he needed. A smile that warmed him like the sunrise. A delicious bubble of laughter to remind him that there was joy in the universe. A hand to hold, dainty fingers curling around his own with surprising strength. A hug, to assure him that she was here, that he hadn't lost her.

_Again. _

**No.**

_Yet. _

**No. **

His beautiful, clever, impossible girl, who **_cared_** with such ferocious tenacity. The universe was officially on notice: he wouldn't let go of this one without a fight.


	2. Chapter 2

"Just promise me one thing; find someone."

_'I did, Donna. I found someone…well, technically, you could say she found me. Three times. And you know what? She's almost as wonderfully annoying as you.' _

"This is what happens when you travel alone for too long."

_'That's why I didn't travel alone, Amy…just sat stuck up there on that cloud, until she came along.'_

"Don't travel alone."

_'Just long enough to find her again, River. That's all, I promise. I'm not alone anymore.'_

"Better with two."

_'Always. Oh, Rose…she's not you, but I think I'm starting to fall for her. You don't mind, do you?'_

"What about you now? Who've you got?"

_'I've got her, Wilf. I've got my Clara.'_


	3. Chapter 3

They'd all been perfect in their own way, really. Just what he'd needed at a given moment in time.

Donna, who'd understood that his hearts were broken, and didn't try to push her way in, blunt in her offer of friendship, and nothing more.

Little Amy, her sweet, childish innocence the ideal balm for his soul after the final links to his home had been severed past all hope of recall.

And Clara. Sassy, and funny, and so pretty (even if he could never manage to say that bit out loud). She made him laugh. Such a simple concept, but oh, so necessary, even for thousand year old Time Lords. Perhaps especially thousand year old Time Lords.


	4. Chapter 4

"That's not a leaf. That's page one."

Page one.

Page one of her 101 Places to See Book.

Page one of her life…the thing that brought her parents together so that she could exist.

Page one of her travels with him.

But how could she have known?


	5. Chapter 5

"Are you guarding me?"

**Yes.**

Because far too many of his precious ones had been ripped away from him, because he blinked, looked away just for a moment, got distracted at precisely the wrong instant.

Not her.

Not again.


	6. Chapter 6

Her Mum's ring. Something tangible for her to hold onto, a reminder of a life cut short…a reminder of all she'd lost, all the moments she'd never have. He knew what that felt like, to lose someone so precious, someone you should have had more time with, even if it was just a brief human lifetime.

He lied to her, just a bit. He was the one who wanted her to have the ring back.


	7. Chapter 7

Emma told him that Clara was more scared than she let on, but she always seemed to find some hidden reserve of courage. For him. Always for him. Courage to come back for him, when he'd sent her to safety. (And he wasn't sure he could handle another one who did that…) Courage to match wits with a five thousand year old ice warrior. Courage to browbeat the TARDIS into rescuing him.

Always for him. What was it about him that triggered these sudden bursts of bravery? After a thousand years, he was more than capable of looking after himself, so why did she keep putting herself in harm's way for **_him_**?


	8. Chapter 8

For all Clara's protestations that the TARDIS didn't like her, the old girl had been remarkably quick to lead her directly to his best protected secret and **_share_** it. The TARDIS had never been programmed to translate Gallifreyan, yet she found a way to translate for Clara. And she found a way to keep Clara safe long enough for him to find her. She seemed to know an awful lot about his impossible girl. He **_really _**wished it were possible to speak to her again.


	9. Chapter 9

_**"It's complicated." **_

How could he explain Clara to Jenny and Vastra, when he couldn't explain her to himself? How to explain that she was the same person they'd encountered so briefly that Christmas, and yet…not? The same smile and delighted laughter, the same caring heart. This Clara - **_his_** Clara - was perhaps a bit more thoughtful, a trifle less impetuous. She complemented him, in so many ways. The way she just seemed to know when he needed to feel her hand in his own, and the way her fingers fit so perfectly with his. Maybe he needed to stop trying to figure her out, and just take pleasure in being with her - just accept whatever measure of joy the universe chose to bestow on him.

But then, he always did enjoy a good mystery.


	10. Chapter 10

A marriage proposal. From an emperor, no less. Not the first time it happened, of course, all those years and all the people who'd traveled with him, but…not her. Not his Clara. Not yet. He wasn't ready to let her go yet.


End file.
